Morphine, Catheters, Pain and other subjects.....

[Guest guest]

I am SO glad to be home!!!! I had my first solid food this evening;

Garrett scrambled an egg and made me toast. It was SO good!!! Hadn't

had any real food since Sunday evening.......sheesh, and here I

thought I was hungry on monday!! lol

Hospital food sucks. Actually it goes beyond sucky, it's revolting!! I

am here to tell you that NO ONE can eat cream of wheat cooked in water

with no anything on it!!!!!vile vile vile, and I like that stuff!!

The good news is you aren't very hungry so it's not such a penance.

I was 1st up on the docket on Tuesday am, and CPMC is very WLS

sensitive. I was never treated with anything less than complete

kindness, and often warmth and friendliness. The People were so good

that it made up for the food (well... ok... almost!)

Billie, a Rabkin patient herself was my surgery nurse. Getting prepped

was fine and interesting (got to see the 'Boy's Toy's')and felt very

relaxed. I did get what was my first high sign of what prooved to be a

problem throughout my stay......I have a hard time with the drugs. A

few minutes after the first shot I had a weird response; my mouth

FLOODED with saliva. I was instantly nauseous. I was already

strapped to the operating table and through the spit I was fighting to

get up and saying I was going to barf. When Billie and another nurse

quickly unstrapped me and heaved me upright. Lots of deep breaths

later, the nausea subsided and I lay back down. That's about all I

remember about OR.

The next 24 hours are a drug induced blur and frankly most of what I

have to say is hearsay from my husband, Garrett, and the nurses. I do

remember being rolled into my room after recovery and I use the word

recovery loosely. But after that, it appears that some bad

communication and miserable response to morphine on my part resulted

in about 14 hours of minor drama. I had a patient controlled morphone

pump (PCA) and I remember pushing it and it didn't help. Everything

hurt a lot and I had a hard time tracking what was going on around me.

At some point, a nurse gave me an intramuscular morphine shot which

worked great (per Garrett).

When that shot started to wear off fast, I was returned to the

pain place. Garrett tried to call the nurse for me and was told

that they would be right there. After a couple of minutes, he

rang again and was told that they were on their way. I was

writhing in pain on the bed and trying to get up. Garrett rang a

third time and said to the disembodied voice, " I have a Blue Code

Alert button under my finger. I am going to push it and get the

attention of the entire hospital unless you come in here. I

would guess that you would prefer to not have to explain to the

entire hospital about why a patient had to have the Code Blue

button pushed because you can't get out of your chair. "

Immediately a nurse appeared like magic.

After that Dr. Rabkin reappeared. I remember feeling that I had to

get out of bed, but once on my feet was shaky and unsteady and I think

I was crying because it hurt so much. Dr. Rabkin for another shot of

morphine and somehow I got put back to bed (getting up was a really

stupid idea). I also received a muscle relaxant shot that worked

really well.

The combination of drugs caused me to sleep really well for three

hours with no discomfort. I slept so well that the nurse started to

get a little nervous about the depth of my sleep. She checked my

oxygen saturation level and foudn it to be below 75%. She attempted

to wake me by shaking me and yelling at me and I didn't respond. She

got several more nurses to help shake and stir me and they couldn't

wake me either. One of them called Dr. Rabkin and he recommended an

antidote to the muscle relaxant. By this time they had also called

the oncall onstaff doctor who when she found out that the antidote

would take 15 minutes to arrive from the pharmacy decided to give me

Narcan (morphine antidote). It works very quickly and effectively and

I was awake and able to feel everything (big drag). My respirations

increased and my oxygen saturation became excellent, but everything

hurt alot. They gave me an intravenous shot of morphine to help with

the pain and it worked. The doctor's parting words as she left were

watch me closely since the Narcan will wear off before the morphine.

I was able to doze for a few hours and then fell back into the deep

scare the nurses sleep. However since a shift change had occurred,

the new staff was not aware of my condition. Garrett who was

heorically sleeping in the hard wooden chair next to me woke up at

2:00 and discerned that I had returned to the bad sleep phase. He

went out to the nurse's station and said that I was doing it again.

Since they were new and couldn't be bothered to read the chart form

the previous shift, they entire staff came in to shake me and yell at

me about waking up to the same level of success that the previous

bunch had had. The oncall onstaff doctor was called again and when

she came up she said that the Narcan had worn off and the morphine had

not. She then had them give me more Narcan and the antidote to the

muscle relaxant. This highly effective combination enabled me to once

again feel everything. My roommate had been recommmending Toradol for

hours and they decided to listen to her. A nice shot of Toradol and I

was again able to sleep, but the good kind that included breathing.

The rest of my stay was thankfully uneventful. , B, and I hiked

the halls all hours night and day. Because the menus that we got were

so awful, we resorted to scrounging juice and crackers left behind

unopened by other patients. The cranberry juice over ice was nirvana

in a glass.

I was often nauseous but never threw up and I was often very

uncomfortable. As you can see, the pain was bearable and I am home.

The drive home was hard and my back muscles are sore from bracing

against the seat. Banks, our great physical therapist, had me

prepared to climb the 33 stairs to our house and I made it up with

only a short pause in the middle to rest. Being at home is wonderful

although I do miss the trapeze over my bed and am still searching for

ways to get comfortable. The Darvocet that I was sent home with is

pretty much useless, but since I can't take Vicodin, morphine, muscle

relaxants, etc....I am sort of stuck. Garrett keeps reminding me that

every day it gets better and there is less to bear. So thus far,

everything is going well and I am thrilled to be on the other side.

Mama B and I took advantage of our midnight strolls to talk through

how we felt about what we were doing and what was going on with our

bodies which I found helpful. Katy Rose is thrilled to have me home

where I belong and promptly abandoned me for a sleepover, Christmas

tree cutting, and gingerbread house construction.

My last piece of advice is SHUT YOUR DOOR AT NIGHT and make the nurses

close it behind them during their midnight raids. I swear they

checked my blood pressure more often in the middle of the night then

they ever did during the day.

Love,

P.S. Catheters suck too and boy was I glad to get mine out once my

urine wasn't so concentrated!!

[Guest guest]

Oh! ! That's quite the story! I read it to my son Sam who was

my great support after my DS surgery, a 17 y.o. and also a veteran

hospital patient having spent 1/2 his life there from birth to age 4.

Anyway, he was empathetic and also laughing his head off! The only

thing he didn't understand was " what's the trapeze above the bed,

mom?? " He had seen an episode of Sex in the City and had an entirely

different idea of what a trapeze in a bedroom was for....

Um. Yea. So, welcome home peanut. I know what you mean about the egg

tasting so good. My friend Sharon cooked em for me. I thought

Odwalla orange juice over crushed ice was the bomb. I look forward to

being through my weight loss when I can drink myself a big ol' fatty

glass of it again!

Best to you.